Public Statements

Government Resources United Kingdom Opposed perspective

I oppose facial recognition in our city parks

Opposed Posted by Councillor Ian Whitcombe Reading time ~ 2 min

This is community opinion, not fact. Moderated before publication.

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I serve on the town council of a small city and last autumn a vendor pitched us on installing AI-powered cameras in our parks, framed as a way to detect anti-social behavior. I voted against it, my colleague voted against it, and the measure failed by one. I want to explain why, because I do not think I am anti-AI in general. I use assistants to help me prepare briefing notes for constituents, and I have been genuinely impressed by some of what they can do. This was different. The vendor could not give us a straight answer on how the system was trained, on what error rates we should expect for different demographics in our community, or on how long footage would be retained and by whom. We were offered a demo and a glossy brochure. We were not offered a data protection impact assessment or independent evaluation. Parks are where children play, where teenagers socialize, where older people sit on benches in peace. Installing a persistent AI surveillance layer there, without a clear harm it was solving and without answers to basic governance questions, seemed to me a bad trade for the communities I represent. I would support the same vote today. I think local councillors across the country are being pitched these systems and many of us do not have the technical backing to push back. We need more support.
#Government Resources #Ethics & Safety

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